Many of us cling to items "just in case" we might need them someday or save our fancy china for a special occasion. But one woman has taken a bold step in the opposite direction—ditching anything she doesn’t use daily and fully embracing a minimalist lifestyle.
Gulnaz Abdrakhmanova, who goes by @practical.minimalist on Instagram, regularly shares items that she can live without and encourages others to do the same.
The 49-year-old told Newsweek: "I’m a full-time working mom of three, so if I didn’t keep my household minimal and organized, I would go insane."
A November YouGov survey found that just 9 percent of all Americans describe their hom…
Many of us cling to items "just in case" we might need them someday or save our fancy china for a special occasion. But one woman has taken a bold step in the opposite direction—ditching anything she doesn’t use daily and fully embracing a minimalist lifestyle.
Gulnaz Abdrakhmanova, who goes by @practical.minimalist on Instagram, regularly shares items that she can live without and encourages others to do the same.
The 49-year-old told Newsweek: "I’m a full-time working mom of three, so if I didn’t keep my household minimal and organized, I would go insane."
A November YouGov survey found that just 9 percent of all Americans describe their home as very cluttered, compared to 33 percent who say they are not very cluttered and 23 percent who say they are not at all cluttered.
Abdrakhmanova recently shared a post that highlights 10 things that she doesn’t "need anymore," earning over 93,000 views.
10 Items She No Longer Needs
Here are the 10 items and her reasoning:
- **Extra sets of dishes **"One everyday set is enough—no more ‘just in case’ plates."
- ** Seasonal décor for every holiday **"I use a few timeless pieces instead of bulky themed items."
- ** Duplicate kitchen gadgets **"If one tool does the job, that’s all I keep."
- ** Excess kids’ toys **"Quality > quantity. Fewer toys = calmer home."
- **Paper clutter **"I digitize everything I can—no piles on counters."
- **Backup bedding for every bed **"Two sets per bed only—one on, one washing."
- ** Bulk beauty products **They take up space and often expire before you use them.
- **Unused small appliances **If it hasn’t been used in months, it’s time to let it go.
- **Clothing ‘just in case’ **"I keep what fits my real life, not my imagined life."
- **Storage bins to hide clutter **"I declutter instead of organizing clutter into containers."
If items like makeup aren’t used daily, then they are in the bin—and the same goes for small appliances. Abdrakhmanova notes in her profile biography that having less stuff equals more peace, a philosophy that aligns with research too.
She told *Newsweek *that she started to embrace this lifestyle over a decade ago when she moved to Vancouver, Canada, from Asia.
She said: "I had to go though all my belongings and take only the most valuable things with us.
"We moved to Canada just with 4 suite cases and we left entire life in Kyrgyzstan."
Science Behind Decluttering
An October 2024 Yale study revealed that visual clutter doesn’t just confuse our eyes—it changes how information moves through the brain. Researchers found that, while the exact spot of clutter in our field of vision doesn’t alter the basic connections between brain cells, it does affect how smoothly those signals travel.
To uncover this, scientists trained monkeys—whose vision closely resembles ours—to focus on a screen while images appeared in different areas. By tracking brain activity in the primary visual cortex, they discovered that clutter can slow down or disrupt the efficiency of information flow, offering fresh insight into how our brains process complex scenes.